Classical

Hagen Qt/Uchida

Mitsuko Uchida seems to be adding more and more chamber music to her repertoire. After touring Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time last year, the inspirational solo pianist has now switched to something completely different, partnering the Hagen Quartet in Brahms's F minor Piano Quintet.

Brahms isn't a composer much associated with Uchida, but this performance - which must have galvanised everyone who heard it, not to mention the Hagens themselves - suggested she should explore much more. If her playing of the late piano pieces would be an especially mouth-watering prospect, her astonishingly dynamic account of the bold, more assertive piano part in the quintet was a revelation in itself, and a reminder that few performers commit to what they are playing more purposefully and intelligently than Uchida; nor do they have the same ability to drawn the best from other musicians more consistently.

Whether embroidering the main theme of the slow movement with effortless poise, or driving the scherzo forward with mounting excitement, Uchida led the way, just as she did in the finale, as the introspective slow introduction gave way to the blithe main theme. While the phrasing of the first violin remained an acquired taste, Hagens responded magnificently, roused from what had been, if not torpor, then aristocratic routine in the first half of the concert. Mozart's E flat String Quartet K428 was immaculate, but its depths were hardly probed at all; Bartók's Third Quartet lacked real fizz and bite until the closing stages, though all its textural detail was perfectly in place. The Brahms, however, was really special.